The idea of turning trash into cash will be one of the focal points of this week’s Waste-to-Wealth summit at the Ohio University Inn.
On Sept. 13 and 14, the Appalachia Ohio Zero Waste Initiative will host the inaugural Waste-to-Wealth Summit with the goal of examining how to build rural wealth by increasing the amount of materials that are reused.
Solid waste district coordinators, small business owners, consultants and philanthropists will be present at the summit, said Rural Action Administrative Assistant Erin Sykes.
Rural Action helped to put the Waste-to-Wealth summit together.
“I’m excited because there will be people there with a broad wealth of knowledge on the issue,” Sykes said. “They have many ideas we could use.”
The first day will focus on Athens and the surrounding area, and the second day will focus on issues involving the states of Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, Sykes said.
“We are working to build rural wealth through increasing the amount of materials that are reused,” Sykes said. “I hope that through the zero-waste initiative we can turn waste materials from a liability to an asset, providing jobs through management of products.”
Neil Seldman, president and co-founder of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, is the keynote speaker for the summit. He said he wants to focus on the economic and environmental advantages of a zero-waste plan.
“We have done a lot of research on what is going on in regards to garbage and recycling,” Seldman said. “We’re ready to take information and apply it to a zero-waste program for Athens, Ohio. It means diverting 90 percent from landfills to companies looking to reuse the products.”
Seldman said Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta are among the cities that already have a zero-waste plan in place. He wants to spend time talking about specific companies looking to locate a plant in Athens as well as the methodology for such a plan.
“The cash spent on waste management is reduced through our methods,” Seldman said. “If collected materials are made available to businesses, jobs will be created. It is great for a tough economy. Recyclables have value added to them at each stage of the process (cleaning, shredding, composting, and manufacturing). This is how zero-waste creates jobs.”
For every 10,000 pounds sent to a landfill, only one job is created, Seldman said.
“When the same amount is sent to manufacturing or landscaping, hundreds of jobs are created,” Seldman said.
According to Seldman’s report, Recycling Means Business, on a per-ton basis, sorting and processing recyclables alone sustain ten times more jobs than landfilling or incineration. However, it is making new products from the old that offers the largest economic pay-off.
For example, old newspapers may sell for $30 per ton, yet new newsprint sells for $600 a ton, showing the promise of the value-added throughout the process.
OU has a contract with the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District for recycling materials, said Steve Mack, Director of Facilities Management at OU. The university creates a substantial amount of the recyclables handled there, although the exact amount is unknown.
“I think it fits in with our sustainability plan,” Mack said. “It’s a long way off and we have a lot of work to do. I’m hoping it will spur some interest in the economy of recycling. I’m hoping it generates that ground swell that leads to some alternate routes for these recyclables to go to.”
There is also a huge environmental benefit of a zero-waste plan as well, Seldman said. There are three ways in which reused materials help reduce environmental damage, the first two being less resource extraction and less waste placed back into the ground in landfills.
“The third reason is that businesses would only have to buy things from 50 miles away instead of 3,000 as plants making, reusing and remaking these products would be much closer,” Seldman said. “It will save energy, water and transportation costs, which is both good for the environment and the economy.”
Seldman is a firm believer that a zero-waste plan will help to positively impact both Athens and the rest of the world will ultimately become a necessity for the future.
“Bottom line is that the world is ultra-competitive over resources. The more that we can save and reuse, the less wood we have to haul out of a forest for example,” Seldman said. “In terms of someone imagining a world at peace, a zero-waste plan would be imperative.”
as299810@ohiou.edu
